Question 1

Does this require PCI Express or PCI Express 2.0? I have an older Socket 775 Gigabyte  GA-G33M-S2H motherboard.

Accepted Answer

My mainboard is Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R (rev. 1.1) which has an  Intel LGA 775 CPU socket and

1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 2.0 standard)

3 x PCI Express x1 slot.

The Mediasonic HP1-SU3 PCI Express USB 3.0 ProBox Card works well in a PCI Express x1. The only PCI Express x16 slot is for Video card. More info about my mainboard:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3013#sp

Sincerely,

Question 2

It looks like it has a USB 3.0 plug that would normally be used for a motherboard. I have a motherboard that supports USB 3.0, however only has 1 plug. I installed a front port that came with 2 plugs... would I be able to plug this into the card, get 2 USB 3.0s in the back, and also enable the 2 in the front?? That's all I really care about. Thanks!

Accepted Answer

This card only has the 2 USB 3.0 plugs in the face shown in the photo. The other connector on the card is a SATA power in, to power the card.

Question 3

Pics are confusing. Obviously the card needs a supplementary power cable, attached to the depicted white power header, so there is no USB 3.0 internal header even though it is shown in some pics???

Accepted Answer

I didn't get around to installing it, but I just opened it up and all you have to do is install it into a pci express slot and attach a sata power cable to card.  Comes with a mini disk for a driver as well.

Question 4

Does this device have a header to support the USB3 cable coming from the front panel on most new ATX boxes? It is a 19 or 20 pin D style female connector. Also does Windows 8.1 support this device? Are the Win 8.1 drivers written for this?

Accepted Answer

The connector you see on the back edge of the card is a sata connector to supply the dc power requirments of usb 3 but no other connection supplied to allow for the front panel connections you ask about.  I am using it on win7 but the box and inclosed doc says it works directly with win8 no driver needed.

Question 5

What is the height of the backplate that screws into the back of the computer? 80mm?

Accepted Answer

I had to remove the bracket to get it to fit in my small form factor PC. It is simply a matter of two screws. It is working fine without the bracket.

To answer your question indirectly it'll fit a standard ATX computer expansion slot.

If I measured things correctly, the bracket was just shy of 4 7/16" (~4.44") which an online calculator tells me is ~11.27cm (112.7mm).

Question 6

Does this require USB 3.0 connections on the motherboard or will it upgrade my motherboard that does not have them?

Accepted Answer

The usb ports that support USB 3.0 are ON the card. It does not speed up existing ports on the m/b. It is an add-on upgrade of only the ports that come on the card. Be sure to connect the power cable once when you install. It is required, then install correct drivers. It's better to install drivers on the cd.. the 3rd party website is difficult for some to navigate (why they did it this way, I'll never know).

Question 7

I have purchased this, but after installing the drivers for Windows 7 , it still fails to operate.  Where can I get correct drivers?  The Mediasonic website has none available.

Accepted Answer

I have this running under Windows 7 and I don't recall having to download any driver.  I did, however, have a major issue until I realized that this needs supplemental power.  Have you connected a SATA power cable to the card?

Question 8

will this work with whs 2011?

Accepted Answer

If you mean Windows Home Server then this card will work if you have a PCI Express slot available on your WHS motherboard.  Anyway it only costs $15.

Question 9

Hello,

Will this work on HP Proliant G7 N54L micro server with OpenNAS or any other linux variant?  Thanks

Accepted Answer

I don't thimk it has drivers for it.I only tried windows

Question 10

Does this card support Linux? Or more specifically, CentOS 6 x86_64?

Accepted Answer

Hi, I'm sorry.  I'm a Windows 7 user and even with that, the drivers were somewhat tricky.  You can visit the manufacturer website/forums for specific questions.  There's also a direct link to drivers that may help you/compile.

http://forum.mediasonic.ca/viewforum.php?f=18&sid=3240d4286fd735850c3dceb22acd6534

Questions & Answers